The present disclosure relates to a locking device for a swinging/sliding door. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a swinging/sliding door for vehicles. The locking device interacts with a guide rail arranged on the door leaf of the swinging/sliding door along the bottom horizontal edge thereof. The bottom horizontal edge is provided in the floor region, in the region of the secondary closing edge, and which can be actuated by a door drive.
Swinging/sliding doors, as are often used in particular in vehicles, for example in railroad cars or subway cars, are usually guided, and connected to the door drive, in the region of their top horizontal edge. The bottom door region is usually guided via guide rollers or guide rails or the like in order to prevent the door leaf from striking against the doorway or from rattling in the open state. There is then the problem of having to provide a closure means along the bottom peripheral region of the door leaf, in the region of the secondary closing edge, in the closed state, in order that reliable closure and sealing of the door is also ensured in this region. There are essentially two possible ways of providing for this in the prior art.
The first possibility provides a type of rotary lever or hook. The rotary lever or hook, once the door has reached the final closed position, is rotated such that it presses onto a latching surface of the door leaf in the closing direction and fixes the position of the door leaf in this way.
In the case of the second possibility, the guidance of the door leaf in the region of its bottom horizontal edge is used in order for the guide means interacting with the guide, at the end of the closing movement, to be moved in the direction normal to the door-leaf plane (or more or less normal to the door-leaf plane). This is done so that the correct final closed position can be ensured.
The first possibility has the disadvantage of requiring additional elements which have to be accommodated in the doorway. It thus involves high outlay and requires a considerable amount of space. In addition, special allowances have to be made in the door-control means.
The second possibility is easier to manage from the point of view of the control means, but the amount of space which it requires is precisely where the door users will be particularly aware of the space available. That is, in the inside width of the doorway.
The present disclosure relates to an improved device related to the second possibility mentioned above such that the amount of space required is reduced and that it is possible to have configurations in which a guide rail arranged on the door leaf may be of shorter design than has been the case hitherto. All of this is being done without increasing the costs or the installation outlay.
This present disclosure relates to a four-bar mechanism, such as a parallelogram, which is formed by an essentially horizontally arranged coupling member and levers arranged in an articulated manner thereon. One of the levers includes a guide slot into which projects a locking bolt. The locking bolt can be moved in the guide slot by an actuating element actuated by the door drive. This makes it possible for a rotary movement. Heretofore, movement ran in a horizontal plane and essentially transversely to the width of the doorway, and thus required a considerable amount of space in this direction. The movement can now be changed into a rotary movement about horizontally, or essentially horizontally, running axes. The components involved are formed as flat structures, which thus have considerably reduced dimensions in the direction of the width of the doorway.
One embodiment, according to the present disclosure, includes a locking bolt that projects into the guide slot. The locking bolt is arranged on a locking lever, which lever can be pivoted about an essentially horizontal axis. The actuating element acts on the locking lever, for example, in the region of the bolt. This allows precise guidance of the locking bolt and of the actuating element using just one component, which cuts back on space and costs.
In an embodiment, according to the present disclosure, the coupling member has arranged on it a pivoting lever which can be pivoted about an essentially vertical axis and, at its free end, bears a guide roller which interacts with the guide. It is thus possible for the guide roller to be located within the width of the doorway when the door leaf is in the closed position, but right up against the periphery of the doorway, or slightly outside the width of the doorway, in the open position. As a result, the guide rail on the door leaf may be configured to be considerably shorter than the door leaf in this direction (width).
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.